Autonomous Surgical Robot With Camera-Based Markerless Navigation for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

The results of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) significantly depend on the individual capabilities of surgeons. In this article, an autonomous surgical robot is proposed to automatically perform surgery according to a preoperative plan with the assistance of a surgeon. A 3-D computed tomography image of the subject's teeth was used to build an offline shape-based model by creating a large amount of 2-D contour data. A monochrome camera was mounted on a self-developed robot to capture the real-time image of the teeth for comparison with the offline 2-D contour to verify the teeth pose without using common markers. The data of the preoperative plan and the teeth pose were integrated to guide the movement of the robot during operation. Drilling experiments were conducted on the five 3D-printed mandible models, and a statistical analysis revealed highly accurate results. This autonomous robot provides a practical solution for robotically conducted OMS and has the potential to significantly reduce the workload of surgeons.